CHS54.COM has moved HERE where Charlotte Central High School's graduates of 1954 now get together.
That was a special class at a very special time in history; the likes of which will never be seen again.
Ed Myers, aka Lee Shephard, is webmaster. Email is shephard@gmail.com

Saturday, May 24, 2014

Growing up Under a (Mushroom) Cloud

1950's School room defense tactics

I don't believe there was a better time nor place to grow up when we did than in America; and yes, Charlotte, North Carolina.

It would have been almost perfect, if it hadn't been for that black cloud...that was always in the back of our minds; the thought that we could all be nuked at any moment.

World War Three was never totally out of our thoughts because from 1947 until the 1990's there was always the real possibility that sooner or later it would begin.

Waiting

Our leaders and our Military war planners had a code word for it. It was a word very few of us had ever heard and indeed still have no idea what or where it is.

The word was FULDA.

Fulda is a small town in West Germany and just on the outskirts is the Fulda Gap, which was the most heavily armed place on earth. More than a million U.S.and Soviet soldiers were lined up not 400 yards apart.That's where intelligence sources said World War Three would most likely start.

U2 Pilot Powers

It almost did on May 1, 1960 when Francis Gary Power's U2 spy plane was shot out of the sky over Soviet Russia.

"Don't you fly into the Soviet Union! Don't you fly into the socialist
countries!" Khrushchev demanded. "Respect sovereignty and know your
limits! If you don't know your limits, we will strike!"

American defenses went on alert.

Fulda Tunnel

An Army special weapons officer from the 23rd Engineer Battalion (Armored Division) and his platoon were immediately sent to the nearby Fulda tunnel.....which separated the opposing armies...with a fully armed Atomic Bomb and the "Target Folder," taken from the super secure"safe,"which contained the activation codes needed for detonationand orders to destroy the tunnel.

Had cooler heads not prevailed, A 1954 graduate of
Central High School would have set off America's first Atomic
bomb of World War Three.

His name: Obie Oakley.
Fascinating stuff, indeed!

Whew!

Obie in Fulda

Obie writes about this and much more in his latest book, MAKING OF A SOLDIER, which is both a personal journey and a close up look at the men of our military in potentially the most dangerous place and era of our lifetime.

Those who know Obie best often describe him as a "born" soldier.

But as far as I could discover, that aspect of his personality didn't begin until 1941, when he was 5 years old...and continues to this day.

Obie in 1941

He wrote the book as a fund raising effort for the Freedom Foundation which honors veterans.

Editor's note: As far as experts can determine, this was the only such deployment in U.S. Military history.Obie's commander at Fulda was ColonelHarry Mumma who has been quoted in recent years regarding Obie's Atomic bomb deployment:"As an afterthought, it is hard to imagine that a 23year old 1LT and his platoon were being entrusted with the responsibility of setting off a nuclear device!"

Obie Oakley

Reminder: Twenty years ago, Obie and two friendsraised the money to build the Vietnam WarVeterans Memorial in uptown’s ThompsonPark. He’s chaired boards and he’s been aprime force behind the Carolinas FreedomFoundation, which puts on the yearlyVeterans Day parade -Ed

Ozymandias

`My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings: Look on my works, ye mighty, and despair!'

Keep on Tooting

WISDOM FROM STEVE JOBS

Your Time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life.

Don’t be trapped by dogma – which is living with the results of other people’s thinking.

Don’t let the noise of others’ opinions drown out your own inner voice.

And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition.

They somehow already know what you truly want to become.

Everything else is secondary.

-Steve Jobs

This is the new address for CHS54

The only thing that has changed is the "dot net" part of our address.

And most of the articles over the past years that this blog has been in existence are now at this address.

So WELCOME dot NET...

Ellouise Blog

Click on Picture to go to her blog

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